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Emotion and Sound


Anoebis

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This was inspired by a topic on a Belgian forum, but anyway

 

how come that sounds work on your emotion? Why is a melody played "down" more sad, and a melody played "up" more happy? is it just because we link it with things we saw on television? Or is there another reason?

 

What is the (scietific) proof of sound on emotions?

 

Shoot :) I want to learn about this! :)

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That's funny, 2 days ago I found a few collection of trance toplists on youtube. And they're all organized by the "feeling" you get from these tracks. For example:

 

Top 5 Day Dreaming Trance Songs

Top 5 Easy-Going Trance Songs

Top 5 Inspiring Trance Songs

Top 5 Just Plain Wonderful Trance Songs

Top 5 Catchy Trance Songs

Top 5 Calming Trance Songs

Top 5 Uplifting Trance Songs

Top 5 Impressive Trance Songs

Top 5 Spine-Chilling Trance Songs

 

In most cases the description is pretty accurate. I don't really know why one track gives out one type of emotion while another gives out a totally different type of emotion. I'm intrigued with it aswell. But I can't really explain it or define why it works that way. It's interesting how some melodies give you a 'move on', some make you smile, some make you sad and some make you just want to dance.

 

In fact, what I'm missing in most of nowadays music is exactly that, the emotion part of it. It seems like artists are focused too much on the technical side of things instead.

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I remember when I was doing psychology at Uni there was a module you could choose to do on music. Have no idea whether it was just about beat and rythm since I (stupidly) never took it, but there has to be research into this. I'll go thumb through some old textbooks and see if I can find anything.

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Whilst the books I have mention that music can be emotional they don't bother to explore why they believe this is the case, so no luck there.

 

One does cite an amusing study done in an American wine store where they played either country music or classical music and found that people bought more expensive wine when classical music was played :rolleyes:

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I guess it's just conditioning. For so many years we have heard sad songs with melodies played down and sad sad lyrics. We've heard happy upbeat songs and we're told they are happy. I wonder if you found someone who had never had any contact with music before (or civilisation for that matter) and played him a melancholic track, would he have the same feelings to it? Or would his feelings be ones of awe and blissful amazemnet at this new discovery?

 

It's like the weather, we are conditioned to believe that sunny and hot = a nice day and that overcast or rain = a bad day. This can also really affect people's moods. It's odd don't you think?

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I guess it's just conditioning. For so many years we have heard sad songs with melodies played down and sad sad lyrics. We've heard happy upbeat songs and we're told they are happy. I wonder if you found someone who had never had any contact with music before (or civilisation for that matter) and played him a melancholic track, would he have the same feelings to it? Or would his feelings be ones of awe and blissful amazemnet at this new discovery?

 

It's like the weather, we are conditioned to believe that sunny and hot = a nice day and that overcast or rain = a bad day. This can also really affect people's moods. It's odd don't you think?

It is odd but I think it has to be more than just conditioning. With the weather it's known that the sun actually chemically creates euphoria within the body to an extent, so sunny days are going to be seen as happier than rainy days, which instinctually we wouldn't want to be frollicking around in in case we caught hypothermia etc. Our bodies are remarkably good at ensuring we don't do things that would be harmful to us in these ways. With music though.. I'm not sure. I guess I'm thinking that strong and fast beats would be seen as energetic and gleeful because when we are energetic and gleeful we often run around and our hearts beat faster. Or something. I'm clutching at straws really I guess though because when you get down to specifics like why certain downbeat music sounds melancholy and some serene it gets much more complicated. Still to my mind it has to be something to do with specific brain region/synapse interactions in combination with, as you say, social conditioning. *shrugs*

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I guess it's just conditioning. For so many years we have heard sad songs with melodies played down and sad sad lyrics. We've heard happy upbeat songs and we're told they are happy. I wonder if you found someone who had never had any contact with music before (or civilisation for that matter) and played him a melancholic track, would he have the same feelings to it? Or would his feelings be ones of awe and blissful amazemnet at this new discovery?

 

It's like the weather, we are conditioned to believe that sunny and hot = a nice day and that overcast or rain = a bad day. This can also really affect people's moods. It's odd don't you think?

I think that only works with kids and for a short while. To be honest, when I hear some of the new upbeat happy psytrance that comes out, it makes me wanna cry (cos it sux so much!). So there's your example right there. :lol:
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Maybe sounds that were threatning in our enviroment, like a deep growl, when used in a track in the form of bass appear sad or depressing?

 

While higher pitched sounds are associated with happiness? Like laughter is generally high-pitched? Or say church bells tolling, they're higher frequency.

 

Maybe thats just the way we developed systems to seperate threatning and non-threatning sounds.

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I guess it's just conditioning.

That's like, what was first: the chicken or the egg?

 

So who was the person that has put melancholic sounds on certain movies and pictures? I think conditioning is part of it, but I don't think it can explain all... Like you said, thé test would be: find a person that never heard music in it's life and ask him... But does that kind of people exist?

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That's like, what was first: the chicken or the egg?

 

So who was the person that has put melancholic sounds on certain movies and pictures? I think conditioning is part of it, but I don't think it can explain all... Like you said, thé test would be: find a person that never heard music in it's life and ask him... But does that kind of people exist?

Hmm.. well, even people who never had touch with modern civilization probably have some kind of musical ritual. I mean, music has been around for ages.. who knows, maybe for millions of years allready. But we didn't have technology to record any of it back then. Which is kind of interesting, I'd love to hear the music from thousands of years ago.
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Hmm.. well, even people who never had touch with modern civilization probably have some kind of musical ritual. I mean, music has been around for ages.. who knows, maybe for millions of years allready. But we didn't have technology to record any of it back then. Which is kind of interesting, I'd love to hear the music from thousands of years ago.

I guess you will hear didgeridoo traditional music then? Some sticks/drums and some didge sounds or singing on it, who knows? :) That must be true trance

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sound is energy..

 

waves of airpressure

 

 

 

seems something impossible to me.. that exposure to any form of energy doesn't afflict anything at all

 

 

so to start from that point.. i think you can go and think many different directions

 

 

such as intensity, interval, tonelevels, and sequences or combinations of such

 

 

nothing stronger than sound to intensify an impression or situation...

look at movies for example ;)

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That's like, what was first: the chicken or the egg?

 

So who was the person that has put melancholic sounds on certain movies and pictures? I think conditioning is part of it, but I don't think it can explain all... Like you said, thé test would be: find a person that never heard music in it's life and ask him... But does that kind of people exist?

 

 

i dont think so

 

 

perhaps it was a person who didn't intended to create a melancholic vibe with his sounds, but sucked so hard that people felt pity with him

 

 

 

otherwise, i think all music is created on a visceral level

 

if it doesnt feel as it was intended to, the sounds need to be examined and re-arranged

 

 

i dont believe feelings through a certain sound-design/composition can be triggered because of a standardised way of experiencing it

(after some dude or dudesse decided to call his/her creation "the music where one must feel melancholic" for example)

 

 

*edit*

 

perhaps something interesting to read up on... something used for mental/cognitive purposes, through a binaural sound setup

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemi-Sync

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Psytrance is bit of lack in the emotion stories, Metal is better for discovering the ideas in their roots.

But Psytrance can amplify your own subconscious and can expand your own world when you realize you don't to need to go elsewhere...

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I think it's a combination of conditioning, musical feeling and also taste. For some people a trance song can be very emotional, and for others it's just cheezy.. Also our perception of emotional, cheerfull... is different then from people from let's say the 18th century, what's emotional music for them mostly sound cheerfull to my ears (i'm talking about classical music here). There are also people that aren't touched by any music at all... (yes, they do exsist!! :P)

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am getting a bit confused here

so to get things straight..

 

 

are we talking bout music, or sound here ?

 

 

prolly a rethorical question..

but i really think music(styles, artists,...) and sound in general, should be treated separately in this discussion

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Well kind of difficult to keep the two separated, if we are talking about for example psy trance wich is a music style that in many cases is built up around "sounds/noises" :):rolleyes:

 

if u keep reasonable perspective, u must add not only sounds/noises

 

also structures, repetition, intensities, combinations of sequences (or vice versa)

 

 

with other words... music is made of sounds..

but music is a structured form of sound THUS an in advance CONDITIONED soundstructure

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best example i can give of musical usage to extend and mentally intensify a situation/atmosphere

without intrinsically relating to the essential intent behind it's impression/experience/emotion

 

a well known scene from "Mean Streets"

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMnkRSTO3fc

 

 

 

 

or an example of the complexity of a "sound" as global effect (mentally then emotionally... eitherway)

 

 

and if u want to experience how extensively u can grow nausea by sound.. i'd say..

go check the french movie "Irreversible"

 

youtube prolly won't reproduce the same auditive impact as a quality cinema-experience, but that's a notorious enough principle i suppose :)

 

(youtube compression-stylee)
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Similar to physical excersize?

probably, yes

 

 

but PT brings some extra parameters and side-effects with it

 

as it's manifested primarily on a physical and metabolical level

 

 

but seen as on a mental level ... quite similar i think

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